Answer To: Group Work (50%): PPMP20011 Critical Analysis Report + Presentation (Group Work) East West Link...
Dilpreet answered on Sep 25 2021
CRITICAL ANALYSIS REPORT ON EAST WEST LINK PROJECT-VIC
Table of Contents
Ethical Aspects of East West Link project 3
Project Contract 4
Personal Reflection 7
References 9
Ethical Aspects of East West Link project
The East West Link, which was expected to be one of the largest infrastructural projects of Melbourne has turned out to be one of the greatest divides in Victoria. The project has a number of political passions being associated with it. The project has been swirling around politics. The project is designed to link the Eastern Freeway to the Western Ring Road so that several transport problems associated with the growing population and urban sprawl including traffic congestions and transit delays can be handled with greater efficiency and effectiveness. However, the reality turned out to be quite different from, what was expected as the contracts were signed by different government and was terminated after the elections by a different government.
This acted as sheer example of government controls over traditional governance conventions and outcomes related to the operations. The failure of the project involved a significant cost and involved a number of controversies. Though the project involved 13 public-private partnership (PPP) requirements, none of these requirements were fulfilled. The major ethical aspects associated with the project have been identified as inefficient choice of PPP as the procurement method and providing the value to the public for the money, which is being invested into the project (Australian Journal of Public Administration, 2017). When such huge costs are involved in projects, it is essential that decision made are based on proper planning, fact and figures. However, in case of the East West Link project rushed state advice used for decision making added to the complications further.
The government wasted the hard-earned money of the public, which was payed as taxes by the people to the government. The next government, which came into power after the elections of 2014, cancelled the contract in June 2015, which till the point already incurred huge costs of $1.1 billion on planning, development, procurement, property acquisitions, pre-construction activities and termination payments to EWC. Lack of transparency of government processes and lack of sharing the true information with the people of Melbourne are major ethical issues associated with the project. Though PPP projects claim to provide better project risk controls, slight changes in the public policy are likely to lead to large commercial risks and high costs to the common public or to the public sector, which is ethically not correct. Non compliances in several incidences in this case can be directly linked to the decisions that were made to carry on with this project in a rush. The major ethical aspect of this case is that flawed advice in majority of the incidences were provided, which did not take into consideration the best interest of the project and the use of the money of the taxpayers.
The efforts that have been put in by the planners, the procurement team, the labourers and everybody else, who were closely associated with the project were all in vein. The business contract that was signed indicated that it was good to continue with the project however, the democratic opinion about the project after the elections was a big no for the project. The PPP procurement method chosen for this project and later bringing this project to a still killed opportunities for bankers and businessman, who were eager to earn some revenues through this coalition and contract (The Guardian, 2014). The investments made till the time of cancelling the contract were all a massive waste. The two Victorian election held in the past have given rise to a number of PPP controversies, in which politics can be sensed in and out. This has put a big question mark on the professional planning capacity of the state government. This inability of the government has been leading to the implementation of project proposals through privately funded infrastructure development contracts.
Making better and informed decision could have changed the picture all together and therefore it is essential to make decisions, which are ethically correct and does not harm the other shareholders and stakeholders of the project being discussed. Moreover, before deciding on such infrastructural programs, the government and other public private authorities must ensure that they are not burning the money of the common public or the taxpayers. Business councils and contractors in such cases must not compensate the failed projects through projects like these (The Mandarin, 2015). The third parties, who were involved in the project and were under no circumstances involved in the politics of election and power were affected badly by this unethical signing and cancellation of the project. The project seems to be tightly clenched in the politics of road infrastructure PPPs. The time and money that has been wasted so far is a total loss of the innocent taxpayers.
Project Contract
Since, the East West Link project can be thought of as a conventional contract, it is likely that this project will be subjected to cost and time overruns. Therefore, for...